Back in Business...

Starting to get back to reality, anyway!

What a month July was, so much going on, such a great and happy time in my life. During this time I celebrated by 29th birthday (one more year till 30, yikes!), got hitched and travelled for Jamaica for 11 days on my honeymoon. I am slowly floating back to reality and trying to catch up on all the loose ends I left before the wedding/honeymoon and getting back in to the rhythm of things.

One of those things on my list is blogging and today I am sharing my wedding mani. I decided to go with gels for extended wear since I applied it a good 3 days before the wedding day. I also decided to keep it pretty traditional. I had other ideas in mind and played around with what I wanted to do, but in the end I decided on a classis French mani with a clear base.

I used three products, Bio Seaweed Gel No Sanding Base, No-Wipe top coat and 3 Step colour in 01 White. As you would assume I applied the base, cured, wiped with alcohol then carefully, with no quited drew on the white tips. I took a litter longer than anticipated with this to make it as natural looking as possible. I initally tried striping tape to try a straight edged tip, but it looked to harsh. I also tryed using French manicure guides with no success, they kept bleeding on me.

I applied two coats on each nail, curing in-between and sealed it off with the no-wipe, top coat, my favorite! I really loved how delicate it made my hands look and although not 100% perfect, the tips look flawless in the photos!

Stay tuned for my next post on my honeymoon manis... yes, there were multiple!

Witchy Tips

I have been pretty busy the last few months and could not decide on what I wanted to wear on my nails. I ended up going for something classic with a slight twist, a mix of a French manicure and colour blocking.

I taped off my nails with thin striper tape and added a generous coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out, which has been my go to black polish lately. Although I only applied one coat, this mani lasted me a full week with minimal tip wear. It really started to show it's wear in the last few days, however.

I wanted to do some Halloween nail art over it but was just too busy unfortunately.

Funky French Refresh

Today I have a quick and easy refresh I did for my funky french hot pink tips. Nince I used a neon it started to chip earlier than I wanted to. To try and hide the chips, I made a few touch ups to nails that needed it and applied a cute floral stamp from my jumbo Cheeky plate, E. I love this plate! The full nails designs are super sized and most of the designs have a mirror image so they are easy to work with when placing them on either your left of right hand.

In the photo above the design I used can be seen in the second row, the third and fourth images from the right. You'll need to enlarge the photo to see them better. I have had no issues with this plate the images have always stamped very cleanly, kinda makes me want to buy more lol. The only think I don't like about it is the metal plate with the designs is starting to peel away from the plastic board it is affixed to.

Back to the manicure, I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White for stamping and applied the design to the middle of the pink French tip.

This design also helps to even out the shape of the French tips and makes them look more uniform. Add a little rhinestone to each little flower and you have a tropical summer mani :)

I love this mani, it makes me want to do more fun coloured Frenches and experiment with more design options.

Hot Pink Tips

I had been thinking of doing a traditional French manicure for a while now, and just as I started to apply my base I changed my mind! I still did my French, but with China Glaze Shocking Pink.

I started off with a coat of Nail Tek Foundation II which I followed up with a generous coat of OPI Bubble bath, my favourite sheer nude! I think my bottle may be discolouring or something, were there different batches of this shade? I have seen other swatches online that appear to be more pink, mine leans slightly more milky. It is perfect for covering up and natural nail bed imperfections and staining in one coat!

I then took out Shocking Pink and free handed the tips following the natural line on my nails, I didn't want any white to be visible under the pink tip! I applied two coats and some minor touch ups here and there. Overall I think I did pretty good, haven't free handed in a while. Added a nice thick coat of Seche Vite to even everything out and I was done. I LOVE this look! I was thinking of doing this for my vacation but wasn't sure I would really like it for a full week, not bringing any polish with me.

Any ideas for a fun vacation manicures?

Pink Wednesday! Featuring a Summery French :)

I'm starting to catch on with pink Wednesday :) I actually have a ridiculous amount of pink polishes, it used to be all I wore a couple of years ago. Now I want a different colour family all together each time I change my polish!

I was feeling like a funky French the other day and decided to go with a pink toned coral, Orly's Ole, from last years summer collection. Other supplies I used included:

- Nailene French Tip Guides
- Perfect Formula Pink Base Coat for French Manicures
- Konad Plate M29
- Konad White Special Polish
- Seche Vite Top Coat
- Small silver rhinestones (pointer fingers only)

Basically the process for this French manicure is the same as I always do
1. Apply my base
2. Once fully dry apply my French tip guides
3. Add 2 coats of polish with some dry time in between
4. Carefully remove the guides with tweezers and apply a top coat.

Why am I describing the process in steps? because somewhere between step 1 and 3 my base coat failed me! As I peeled the guides off, the base coat came with it! Not on all nails, but enough to bother me. I have never had this problem with the French tip guides EVER! And the polish was fully dry! It just peeled right off! This wasn't even the worst of it unfortunately... I continued with step 4 and the Konading and everything looked perfect. I took my photos below right after application, besides some smearing of the stamp not too bad right?

The polish actually started to peel up mid day... I was pissed. I got my seche vite and put some under and on top of the peal and that seemed to save it, but not before one full nail of polish peeled right off.

This is the base coat I used

I ended up redoing my pointer finger with a proper base this time with the pink base on top and went through the rest of the steps as normal. I have not had any problems at all with this nail at all. Sooo disappointed with the perfect formula's base :( I actually reviewed their French mani kit before and thought it was not too bad (minus the thick white tip "polish), but I guess this shows you how it wears. I loved the consistency and colour of the base though, it had a pink tint and is perfect!ly smooth. Next time I will just have to use a regular base beneath it.

I had to vent a little seeing as I put way more time in to French manis than regular ones! In case you were wondering I used the middle hibiscus flower on the plate without "Hawaii".

HAPPY 2011!

Hello ladies,

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great Christmas, Holiday time and New Years eve. I am just getting back to work today, I was hoping to have posted my New Years mani on Friday but ended up being so busy that it didn't happen.

What's even worse, unfortunately, is that I forgot to take a picture of it! I was wearing it for 3 days too!! What I did end up wearing was a polish from China Glazes Christmas collection, Midnight Kiss. Pretty fitting huh ;)

I wore it on its own, 2 coats were good enough. I really love this polish, I own a few foils but have never really worn them, this one is stunning on. It's a very light champagne gold, not too yellow which I like.

What I decided to do lastnight was Konad it up a bit, half way though was when I had realized that I hadn't taken a picture of the plain mani! Below is what I came up with.

I tried to free hand the tips with a Nailene french tip pen I purchased in black, but it was acting up on me :( it was bleeding so bad that I couldn't use it, It's the first time its ever happened for me, anyone know what I'm doing wrong or how to fix this problem?

Since that wasn't working I decided to just freehand the tips with black polish, it turned out alright. Overall, I wasn't really feeling it the next morning and took it off and applied a new polish.

What I did realize since I had not usd my Konad plates in a while was that the size for full nail designs ae PERFECT for my nails! The fishnet pattern also worked great on my thumb nails when used width wise. I have been using my BM plates more often and had been taking my Konad ones for granted! If more BM plates are released I really hope they increase the size of their full nail designs.

So what do you ladies think of this mani? Yay or Nay?

The Perfect Formula French Manicure Kit

Hey Ladies,

Today I have another product from the Perfect Formula; the Perfect French Manicure kit.

As always the packaging is great, a cute pink box with the contents and ingredients of all polishes included on the back.

This kit comes with a cute pink and white case to hold your polishes, this is great if you want to bring them around with you for a quick touch up.

The polishes included in the kit are:

Step 1 -Bright Base Coat
Step 2 -French Tip Wand
Step3 -High Gloss Sealer

Lets talk about the French tip wand, this is what interested me the most as it is unique from what I have seen in other French manicure kits.

Below is a picture of the French tip wand

It reminds me of a lip gloss applicator. The polish that is applied with the French tip wand can be touched up/cleaned up with water if needed. This is also true for the Sally Hanson French tip pen I reviewed earlier on. Although you can remove and touch up the"polish" with water, it still stays put once you apply the top coat.

So lets go though the steps:

Step 1
Please forgive my yellowish nails, they are not that bad in person I swear!
I really like this base coat, it has a nice little hint of pink that makes my nails look a little healthier :) ... again it may not show as much in this picture, but I can assure you it is true.

Step 2
Here is where it got interesting. The formula on the white French tip was really thick. I'm not sure if I was sent an older batch or something, but it was hard to work with. I was so excited about the wand when I first saw the kit because it was something new, so I was kind of disappointed that it didn't work the way I thought.

As you can see below, the French tip came out a little rough.

Note: I did each step without any clean up to show how the products actually applied.

Step 3
This top coat was also thick but not unmanageable, nothing a little thinner can't fix.

You can see that the topcoat helped to smooth out the French tip a bit. I think If I had applyed a scond coat of the white tip it may have come out a bit more even.

So there you have it, a complete French tip nail. It doesn't look too bad considering I didn't clean it up, but still not perfect.

Overall I was expecting a bit more from this kit considering how much I love their polish and it's formula. I love the case and the size of the bottles for easy transportation, but the French tip wand does not work for me. I was thinking of thinning it out and trying again, but I'm not sure if my thinner will work with this formula since it is water based.

What are your thoughts on the kit?

*this product was sent to me for review, all views expressed are my own.

Black Lace

Hi ladies,

today I have a mani refresh to share with you. I got a little bored with Revlon - Peach Petal after a couple of days and decided to remove it. But, before removing the polish I wanted to practice some Konading.

I think it was last month that Asami over at Nails By Asami came up with this great black lace french tip look using some 3D nail stickers. I decided I wanted to replicate this look with my lace Konad pattern, so I tried it out, I liked it so much as an accent nail on my ring fingers that I kept it for another day!

All I did was stamp the lace image on the tips of my nails, use a Nailene black french tip pen to draw in a skinny line above it, seal with a top coat and I was done! I had bought the Nailene pen on sale a while back, this was my first time using it and it worked great and dried fast!

What do you ladies think? I love the girly peach/pink colour with the dark black lace accent. I will defiantly be trying the lace french on it's own very soon, it is easy to do, and looks so intricate yet delicate.

Del Sol Color Changing Polish & Sally Hansen French Manicure Pen Review

Hi ladies, This post is waaaaaayy over due. For those of you who live in Canada, I bought these polishes/products when Rexall had their 50% off all polish sale (I think this was in May or June), this is also when I created this mani lol.

First I will start with the French Manicure pen.

Pros

- easy to use

- does not rub off

- does not bleed with topcoat

- fast drying

Cons

- the tip of the one purchased was bent (this made application more challenging)

- multiple coats are needed

- bald spots may occur if not enough time is allowed between coats

Here are some pictures I took after application

This was free hand, it came out pretty decent for my first try. As you can see it can get a little lumpy if you go over the same spot more than once before the polish fully dries.

Next I applied Del Sol's Ruby Slipper (sorry, forgot to take a photo of this polish)

This polish was easy to apply, the glitter was dense in the polish, I applied 2 coats on the tips alone (no smudging of the white tips occurred).

To finish off the look I added a top coat and that was it!

Ta-da! the finished look ... indoors.

I'm sure that you have heard about Del Sol polish, it changes colour with UV light. As you can see in the pictures in normal lighting the polish had a clear base with silver glitter.

In Canada I have seen these polishes at Shoppers Drug Mart and Rexall for $10 Canadian ( I picked mine up for $5 on sale). Recently on my trip to the Dominican Republic I saw these in the Punta Cana airport, they sold for $10 U.S each. The demonstration I received of the "colour change" was not impressive... it didn't change at all! After I had bought my polish I wanted to learn more and found out that these polishes are sometime defective. Had I have known this I probably would not have purchased it, but lucky for me mine did work :)

Here is what my mani looked like in the sun, the clear base turns a pinkish red and the silver sparkles shine though.

What do you think about the Sally Hansesn Nail pen and Del Sol colour changing polish? would you purchase these?